When Worlds Collide

When Worlds Collide

By Snitch Builder

Chapter One

'What was that!' exclaimed Harry as he jumped back from the telescope eyepiece.

Malfoy put his eye to the device and stared through it.

'I can't see anything except the Andromeda galaxy,' he snorted.

'What did you see?' slurred the astronomy professor.

'It was like a giant horseshoe,' Harry explained. 'But it was flying, trying to get away from some, well, what looked like little balls, with panels at each side. The balls were sending out long flashes of light. They made little explosions as they touched the bottom of the horseshoe shaped thing.'

The whole class burst out laughing and Harry went a deep shade of red.

'Settle down, settle down,' the teacher growled.

After the lesson, Harry caught up with Ron from his remedial potions class as he made his way across the Great Hall for supper.

'Where's Hermione,' Harry asked as they sat down.

Ron looked round and frowned.

'I dunno,' Ron replied. 'Oi! Colin! Where's Hermione!'

Colin looked across at Ron and shrugged. Harry was starting to get a little worried about the lack of presence of his girlfriend, but then he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw her limping into the hall, leaning heavier than usual on her walking stick.

'Where did you get to?' Harry asked as she sat down next to him and gave him his usual kiss on his cheek.

'I was just talking to the new Dark Arts teacher, you know, Professor Spiro,' she replied brightly. 'He has been getting some strange readings on his detectors just lately and wanted to run some of them by me. He thought they could come in useful for our final exams next week.'

'What's wrong with your leg?' Ron enquired.

'Well, they fitted me with a different pad,' she explained as she removed the wooden part of her leg from her right knee and placed it on the table. 'You can see they have tried to sculpt it a bit better, but it keeps digging into the stump now. Damn. Its bleeding again!'

Harry took his handkerchief and dabbed the stump of her leg gently. She watched him affectionately as he carefully mopped a little more blood from her almost healed wound. When he had finished, he looked at her.

'I still have a bit of a shudder when I see that,' he said quietly, 'especially when I think that you had survived a two hundred metre fall from the broom, only to get run over by a bloody express train!'

Hermione laughed. 'Serves me right for stealing your broom then doesn't it? Ooh, this bloody leg!'

'Never mind,' Harry added, 'I still love you. Even though you are still trying to leave me bit by bit.'

They finished their meal and Harry felt very contented, that was until Malfoy dropped over to see them.

'Seen any good flashing horseshoes lately, Potter?' he sneered.

'Get stuffed, Malfoy,' Hermione snapped and grabbed the end of her wand.

'Ooh, I'm so frightened of peg-leg-Pete here. Fallen off any good brooms recently, mud blood?' Malfoy and his cronies burst out laughing but soon stopped when six wands were suddenly pointing at Malfoy's throat.

'Go away, you disgusting troll,' Ginny growled and slowly pointed her wand at his nose, ready to release a bat-bogey hex.

Malfoy made a hasty retreat and Hermione returned to rubbing her sore stump.

'What was he going on about,' Hermione asked Harry.

Harry blushed. 'Nothing,' he lied. 'Well ... It was. I saw something strange through the telescope as we were observing the Great Spiral Galaxy.'

He went on to explain what he had seen and Hermione looked thoughtfully at her wooden leg.

'Perhaps it has something to do with what Professor Spiro has been seeing,' she said slowly. 'We should go and see him.'

Harry helped Hermione put her wooden leg back on, and he had stuffed a napkin in the cup at the top to make it a little more comfortable, and with Ron, went up to see the Darks Arts teacher.

***

At the far reaches of the solar system, a huge wedge-shaped Imperial battle cruiser hung silently in orbit around the ninth planet out from the local star. Six Tie-fighters returned from a sortie and landed in the docking bay below the cruiser. Captain Motha stood on the bridge of the Devastator and observed the pilots disembarking from their fighters on a monitor. He glanced down at a console and saw that even though all six fighters had engaged the pirate freighter a few minutes ago, none of them had registered a hit when the freighter disappeared from their scopes. He was not a happy man, and felt even unhappier as an indicator lit for his attention by his right hand. He thumbed a switch and a blue haze appeared above the console, which grew until a miniature image of a man formed, dressed completely in black.

'Lord Vader,' Captain Motha croaked, as he knew that what he had to tell his master was not good news.

'Motha,' the image of Vader hissed menacingly, 'have you captured the Millennium Falcon?'

'N-no yet, sir,' Motha stuttered, he could have sworn he felt an iron grip at his throat. 'We have followed it to the moon of the third planet out from the star we are orbiting. It is only a matter of time.'

'Time,' Vader hissed more forcefully, 'is not on our side. We must recover the map immediately. Failure is not an option. Do I make myself clear, Captain Motha?'

Motha choked slightly as he definitely felt an invisible hand upon his throat.

'Yes Lord Vader,' he gasped as the grip was removed and the image flickered and vanished.

***

'Chewie, not one of your brightest ideas, is it?' Captain Han Solo asked his large furry friend as they sat in the darkened cockpit of the Millennium Falcon.

They had set down hard on a moon orbiting a green planet. The ship had hit so hard, that the main electrical system had been knocked out, and now - apart from the glow of LED's from the console - they sat in darkness, waiting for the scanning to stop from the battle cruiser parked at the outer reaches of the planetary system.

A red light flickered out on the top of the console.

'That's it,' Solo exclaimed. 'They either cant see us, or have just simply missed us. Either way, I want out of here now, before they come back.'

Chewbacca left his seat and lumbered to the rear of the freighter, while Han started to run some checks on the computer.

'Not looking good, is it?' asked a voice from behind him.

Princess Leia entered the cockpit and took the seat vacated by Chewbacca a few seconds before. Han watched the infocrawl run up the monitor in front of him and he scowled as more red lines of writing appeared than green ones.

'Hyperdrive is damaged, lost the rear deflector shield, lower Quad Gun is not coming up to full power, oh, and the water recycling system is down by fifty percent,' he announced in a bright tone.

'Apart from that,' Leia replied sarcastically, 'we're in pretty good shape.'

Han looked sheepishly at Leia, who just smiled back and shook her head.

'We're doing better than we usually do at this point,' he muttered.

Leia looked out of the cockpit window at the nearby planet as it rose up over the rim of the crater they were hiding in.

'Any information about that planet,' she asked and nodded towards the window.

Han ran his fingers over a keypad and an image of a star with nine planets in orbit around it appeared, then receded to show the other local star systems; the system they were in was marked by a small blue line across the star field.

'Well,' he started quietly, 'according to the maps, this area of the galaxy is largely unexplored. Too much bad radiation from a black hole (he pointed to an area of the map that was distorted). But this region looks clean enough. I have been monitoring some radio signals for the last few minutes. Most of it is garbage, and some weird music,' and he pressed a control.

A song - Michael Jackson singing Thriller - came over the speakers in the cockpit. Leia pulled a disgusted face at the music.

'I think I have heard enough,' she mumbled and Han switched it off.

'Most of it is like that,' Han explained, 'and from the speech channels, there are wars going on down there all over the planet. There are satellites, and across from this crater, there is some space junk, so it looks like they have tried a bit of space travel, but only got as far as this rock.'

Chewbacca came back in, holding a mass of wires and circuitry, all of which were very black and charred. He grunted and growled an explanation to Han, who felt a sinking feeling in his stomach that told him they were in serious trouble.

'Looks like unless we can find some way of repairing her, we will run out of air in about two hours,' Han announced.

'That's just bloody great,' Leia snapped and she punched his arm. 'We survive a plunge through an asteroid belt, outrun six Tie-Fighters, and then you tell me we're just going to suffocate!'

Han rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

'What we need is to get down there, and get this thing repaired,' he suggested, hoping that Leia wasn't going to thump him again. 'The planet has a breathable atmosphere, and we should be able to sneak in easily enough. There is no orbiting coast guard laser satellites and no protective shields anywhere. They do appear to have tracking systems, but they can be easily confused. I have already traced a relatively uninhabited area at the top of a land mass, so all we have to do is pick a landing spot when we get there.'

'Okay, laser-brains,' she hissed. 'Can we lift enough to get down there without this ... this piece of crap falling apart?'

'Hey,' Han shouted, as he was fed up of the continual insults aimed at his beloved ship. 'She was good enough for you to get you off that Imperial star destroyer a couple of days ago!'

Chewbacca growled nastily and the two of them stopped fighting.

'You're right, Chewie,' Han whispered. 'Lets get on with it.'

Han sat back down and Leia stomped off out the cockpit. Chewbacca sat in his usual seat and looked at Han, who shrugged.

'I don't know,' Han told his first mate. 'I don't think I will ever understand about women.'

Chewbacca pressed a few controls and the Falcon started to lift from the bottom of the crater.

***

Harry sat on the edge of his bed and looked at his bloodstained handkerchief as Ron came into the dormitory.

'What's up?' Ron asked Harry.

'I was just thinking,' Harry replied quietly, 'what would have happened to Hermione if she had fell a bit more across that railway line.'

Ron physically shuddered.

'Look, mate,' he said soothingly, 'she snatched that broom away from you. You didn't give it to her. She knew full well that she was no good at riding brooms, the only thing she is not good at. Anyway, she didn't fall further across the line. She only lost her leg below her knee. At least she is still alive and mobile, so stop dwelling on it.'

'I suppose you're right,' Harry agreed. 'But what if she thinks I love her because I feel bad about what happened. I mean ... what if she thinks I pity her when I really love her.'

Ron frowned. 'She doesn't think that, trust me. She talks to me, and she knows that you love her more now after the accident than before, but it has bought you two closer together. Who knows, possibly forever.'

Harry was surprised at his friend's statement, as he never thought Ron as being the sensitive type.

'Thanks, Ron,' Harry said and pocketed his handkerchief.

Ron patted Harry on his shoulder and walked over to the window. He threw open the window and let in the warm autumn air and Harry decided to join him. It had become dark outside, and across the top of the Forbidden Forest, bats were flying rapidly across the treetops, catching flies for their evening meal. But then, something appeared in the distance above the forest. A huge dark shape, rumbling with hidden power, descended quickly from the sky. Small flames erupted from below the shape, which seemed to slow it down as it disappeared from view through the trees; the rumbling noise diminishing, being replaced with the frightened calls of birds as they flew from their night roosts away from whatever had just landed.

Harry turned slowly to Ron, and they both had their mouths open in astonishment. Their attention was distracted by a familiar clump, bump as an excited Hermione entered the dormitory.

'Ron, Harry,' she panted, 'Spiro's equipment has just gone berserk! Oh ... what's up with you pair?'

'Gone berserk, you say,' Harry commented.

'Yes,' Replied Hermione irritably.

'We've just seen something land in the forest,' explained Ron.

'Like what?' Hermione enquired.

'I Don't know,' Harry responded. 'That's why we said something instead of saying what it was.'

'Lets go and have a look,' Hermione suggested excitedly and grabbed Harry's hand.

'Not likely,' Ron spat. 'It looked too big for one thing. And for another, why do you think it is called the Forbidden Forest?'

'Oh, tosh,' Hermione snapped. 'Come on, lets just have a little peek. I'm sure it will be okay.'

Harry looked at the frightened face of Ron and shrugged.

'Perhaps it was nothing,' Harry whispered.

'Yes, that's the spirit,' Hermione said brightly.

Ron shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets and followed Harry and Hermione glumly back down the stairs.

***

The Devastator was now fully cloaked and moving with great speed across the solar system. Captain Motha rubbed a sore spot on his throat as he watched through the huge window of the bridge at the asteroids being blasted away from the path of the battle cruiser, but occasionally, a dull thunk could be heard as the odd smaller rock hit the hull of the ship before exploding in a fiery flash. Another officer came up to him and saluted.

'Sir,' he began, 'we have picked up an ion trail from the moon orbiting the third planet out.'

'It's the Falcon,' Motha replied, smiling, before turning to another officer standing behind him. 'General, prepare a landing party. We will go in after them immediately.'

'Yes, sir,' saluted the general, and he ran off towards a door on the far side of the bridge.

So, Motha though, the rats are running to safety. Not long now, Admiral Motha! He laughed quietly to himself as he gave another command.

'Pethit,' he yelled and an operator sitting at a tracking console turned to face him. 'Have you been able to track where the ship has landed?'

The operator went very pale. 'Not really sir,' he said with a wavering voice. 'You see, there is so much radio activity down there, it was impossible to track them fully. However, I have been able to track it down to a landmass at these coordinates,' and he pointed to a large screen in front of him.

'Very well,' Motha acknowledged. 'As you were,' and the man turned gratefully back to his console.

***

The Falcon sat hissing quietly in a clearing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. A centaur cautiously approached the ship and looked at it from behind the safety of a small bush, then galloped off into the forest. Inside, Han was watching the scopes for any sign of Imperial ships; he was scanning as far out as he dared, lest the approaching cruiser picked up his signals, but he hoped it would be mistaken for one of the many radio broadcasts going on from the planet.

'So far so good,' he whispered to Leia. 'Have you picked up anything yet?'

Leia glanced up from her scope, which was set to collect information about the local life forms.

'Lots,' she whispered back. 'Some strange shapes, and animals. Nothing humanoid as yet, though ... Wait ... I think I have something.'

Han left his own scope and looked into Leia's. The life form was large, easily two metres in height and it was coming straight for them! It also had three other life forms with it, but these were much smaller.

'We've got company,' he said dryly.

'How long,' Leia asked.

'Possibly fifteen minutes way,' Han answered.

Chewbacca grunted an enquiry.

'Keep your Bowcaster ready, Chewie,' Han advised. 'Don't know what sort of welcoming committee we are looking at.'

***

'Where you off to, then?' Hagrid bellowed when he saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione approaching the Forbidden Forest.

'Erm,' Harry stuttered.

'We're off to collect some, erm, soil samples for Professor Sprout,' Ron lied, and even in the dim light from Hagrid's lamp, Harry could see Ron's ears turn red.

'Likely story,' Hagrid said. 'You're off to see what came down in there ... Oops, shouldn't have said that, should I.'

'You saw it too,' Harry asked.

Hagrid let out a deep sigh. 'Yes. Come on then, better just check it out.'

Hermione smiled at Harry, and clomped after Hagrid. Harry looked at Ron, who was wearing an even more frightened look. Harry also noticed that Hagrid had armed himself with his crossbow, and had taken even more ammunition that usual, so whatever it was in the forest, had gotten him pretty rattled too.

As they got deeper and deeper into the forest, it was apparent that whatever was in there had frightened a lot of animals; Unicorns and Bicorns were running towards them, Centaurs were visible for a split second, and the large bats that usually keep themselves to themselves were diving in and out of the trees.

'If this turns out to be something deadly,' Harry whispered in Hermione's ear, 'I shall kill you.'

Hermione turned her head to him and he could see a worried look on her face that didn't instil any confidence in him.

'Don't worry, Harry,' she said with a quivering voice. 'Hagrid wont let us get hurt. Trust me.'

'Trust me! Ha! The last time you said that,' Harry noted, 'was when you lost your leg!'

After what seemed like an age, Hagrid suddenly put his hand up and ducked down, so the other three followed suit; Hermione tried to bend her knee, but gave a little yelp as one of the straps holding her leg on dug into her flesh. Harry peered over the top of a fallen tree in front of him and what he saw took his breath away. For in the clearing, surrounded by damaged trees stood the object they had watched fall from the sky, and it was the horseshoe shaped object he had seen earlier through the telescope.

'You see,' Harry whispered excitedly, 'I didn't imagine it! This is what I saw!'

Ron goggled at it and Harry let his eyes linger across the shape. On the left side from where he was looking, a he could see into the ship through the front window of the cockpit. Inside, he could see dark shapes moving slowly.

Suddenly, a small hatch opened at the bottom of the ship and a lethal looking device descended rapidly. The clearing filled with beams of light that flashed in quick succession from the weapon to shatter trees and rocks around the little group. Hagrid raised his weapon and fired at the ship, but his bolt merely glanced off the freighter's hull without leaving so much as a scratch. Harry had dived protectively on top of Hermione, and Ron jumped up to pull Hagrid back down behind the fallen tree as the blaster kept up its relentless fire at them. Then, as suddenly as the barrage of fire had begun, it stopped.

'Bloody hell!' Ron exclaimed as hot shrapnel fell into his hair from the last blast.

'That was a bit nasty,' Hermione said as she pushed Harry off her; the lifeless body of Harry. 'Harry! HARRY!'

She rolled him onto his back and saw that his eyes were closed. Wisps of smoke were coming from a small hole in his shoulder that seemed to have gone all the way through, but most frightening of all was that he was not breathing. Ron jumped up and shouted towards the window of the ship.

'YOU BASTARDS! YOU'VE KILLED MY FRIEND!' he yelled and yanked the crossbow off Hagrid.

Before Hagrid could react, Ron had launched a bolt at the glass, but it simply bounced harmlessly off the window. This enraged Ron, but before he could do another stupid thing, he froze to the spot as he watched the ramp slowly descend from the belly of the ship.